Two Poems

There are all kinds of druids andwitches living in the hills around here.They don’t hurt anybody as far as we know.But you can always spot them at the grocerystore. First off, they drive these reallybroken down old pick-up trucks, often withhand-made wooden shelters over bedslike they could live in there. And they’recovered in layers of shawls and scarvesand bedecked with long gaudy earringsand necklaces and bracelets. And alwaysthe long, long hair. They buy huge amountsof supplies, twenty pounds of cheese, giantbags of granola, etc. They move quicklyas if afraid of being burned at a stake.We all know who they are and like havingthem amongst us on their secret missionsto decorate their inner Christmas treeswith bedevilled human chickenbones.

James Tate is the author of Memoir of the Hawk (Ecco) and Dreams of a Robot Dancing Bee (Verse).